Resumo

PENA FREIRE, Antonio. Was Auschwitz Legal? Legality, Extermination, and Legal Positivism. Isonomía [online]. 2016, n.45, pp.11-46. ISSN 1405-0218.

With the aim of clarifying the meaning of legality and its principles, the article develops the aspects of Fuller's conception of law which prove that legality and extermination are incompatible. It then questions the theses defended by legal positivists on the debate on Nazi law, holding that they are based on an incorrect identification between law and social order, which leads legal positivists to assess the moral value of the law exclusively according to its utility for the ruler and not according to what it means for the governed.

Palavras-chave : genocide; extermination; legality; rule of law; legal positivism.